The Slums of Euridayl

1: Slop Stew and Sea Travel

The wind chill over Azzan's seas was an unforgiving one. It brushed teasingly against the huddled forms on the ship's deck as they gathered about the cold stew bowl. A grouchy crewmate shivered, his thin arms wrapped tightly about himself, while another more burly man poured the slop of a stew into his bowl.

"Are you sure we can't eat this up somehow?"

The burly man looked at his crewmate with bored eyes.

"How, Finn? With a fire perhaps? A fire on our wooden boat?"

Finn grumbled beneath his breath and hobbled away. The burly man rolled his eyes and waved for the next member in line to step forward. As the man in the cloak moved forward, the burly man's eyes happened by the end of the man's robes before his eyes widened a bit.

He was sure- certain even that the man before him had a tail. He rubbed his eyes and averted them, trying not to draw in the man's attention. Still, he snuck one more look and confirmed what he had seen at first before scooping a spoonful of the stew and waiting for the stranger to put their bowl forward.

The man offered him a soft thank you, before turning and moving very carefully away from him. The burly man's eyes followed him away a bit too obviously and the next person in line hissed in his direction.

"Care to mind your own damned business, sir?"

The crewmember jumped lightly, before his eyes landed at the cloaked woman in front of him. Her blue eyes burned with hatred up at him as she held her arms at her sides, ready to fight.

"No- of course ma'am, terribly sorry."

He hurriedly gathered her a generous helping of the stew. She moved the bowl forward jerkily, almost as though she wanted to stab him and the burly man flinched. When their exchange was complete, she followed after the snake-tailed man with a stride.

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Kieran and Enid found a decent enough corner to nestle down in with their stew. The crowd there was a smaller one and they were speaking softly enough not to disturb the others. They did not eye Kieran's lower half or make any move to bed Enid, and that seemed good enough for the two of them.

There was the hum of conversation between what seemed to be a family on the trip. Two young boys with a mother and a very old gentleman, possibly a grandfather.

"Ama, why do we have to go to Euridayl?"

She took off one of her fur garments and wrapped it around the boy, before settling in between the younger ones and looking worriedly at her father.

"Boys."

The young ones turned to the older man curiously.

"Euridayl has many more healers than Taudor. We think there might be someone there who could help you, Eliath."

The young boy with the lighter hair withdrew from the conversation a little, as his darker haired brother pressed on with more questions. Soon enough, the mother hushed them and told them to eat their stew.

A while passed, with Enid and Kieran having finished their own bowls and setting them to the side. Soon enough the curious darker haired boy saw Kieran's long and curling tail. He nudged his brother whose eyes slowly drifted to the tail. Enid grew weary at their curious glances but kept her mouth closed for the moment.

"Uhm, sir?"

Kieran nodded, looking at the young boys.

"Can we touch your tail?"

The mother heard the question and looked at her sons, horrified.

"Eliath! Zen! Stop bothering the fellow, now."

Kieran smiled weakly, pulling his hood down from over his face and flicking the end of the tail closer to them. It seemed he was in a halfway decent mood.

"You may, but let your mother rest a little, ay?"

The boys nodded quickly before reaching their hesitant hands forward and feeling the tail. Their eyes lit up in wonderment.

"Eliath, it's just like a snake's!"

The light haired brother nodded in agreement, a small smile pulling at his lips.

The grandfather nodded a thanks to Kieran, pulling his daughter to him so she could get some rest. The boys satisfied their curiosity and took to playing with a set of dice on the floor in front of their grandfather.

There was still a fairly long journey ahead of them.

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Comment question: What's a place you want to travel to and why?